The Columbus Blue Jackets made history by hiring Jarmo Kekalainen of Finland as the first European general manager in the history of the National Hockey League.

The Blue Jackets fired Scott Howson on Tuesday night after more than five years in the job, during which the club only made it to the playoffs once and fell to the depths of the league.

Kekalainen, director of amateur scouting with the St. Louis Blues 2002-10, held a news conference in his native Finland on Wednesday at the same time the Blue Jackets held theirs in Columbus.

He worked closely with Columbus director of hockey operations John Davidson with the Blues. When the Blues hired Doug Armstrong instead of Kekalainen as GM in 2010, he took over as GM of Jokerit in Finland's top league.

During Kekalainen's eight years in St. Louis, the Blues drafted David Backes, Roman Polak, David Perron, T.J. Oshie, Patrick Berglund and Alex Pietrangelo. With the Ottawa Senators from 1995-2002, he drafted Marian Hossa and Jason Spezza.

That track record will come in handy: the Blue Jackets have three first-round picks in 2013 to go with a presumably high second-rounder. Howson's poor record in the draft was self-evident.

"It's certainly plays into it," Davidson told reporters on Wednesday, according to the Columbus Dispatch. "You try to look at the whole picture, everything you want in a general manager. You obviously look at the strengths, and that's something Jarmo does very well.

"We know how important the draft is, especially with a deep draft, and this one is a deep draft. As an organization, we've had a number of meetings already, how we're zeroing in on the draft. This is going to give Jarmo some time to really jump into this. He'll be a major voice."